


Something Wrong

by IAmAshamedOfMyFanfics (faraandmera)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Illusions, Memories, Nothing serious, Realizations, Violence, fake realities, mentioned character death (past), messy realities, the former members are alluded to by not named
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 03:25:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13285965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faraandmera/pseuds/IAmAshamedOfMyFanfics
Summary: They were kids, when it started. Before they were asleep, and before they forgot.They’re awake. Something is wrong.Something is wrong, but they’re awake this time.And they aren’t kids, this time.





	Something Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> A few important things  
> I started writing this first chapter all the way back in 2016, inspired by Lucky One, Monster, and Love Me Right (of all things).  
> As well as my never ending love of the whole power things.  
> Unfortunately, my investment in EXO was in disarray, especially because I had other things going on, for a while. However, I finally finished this first chapter!  
> The plot actually changed from the original idea- which was lucky one-esque stuff being how they got their powers in this particular story- but I think I like where this is going more.  
> Things get clearer as it goes on.

CHAPTER 1

 

Something isn’t... right. Baekhyun can’t quite place it, but something isn’t right. Everything is too... saturated? Pink? Bright? It was too _something_ , but he couldn’t place what it was. Did the others even notice?

If he pointed it out, would they ignore what he was saying? He’d known them long enough, was close enough to them, that they might listen.

“How did that happen...” Baekhyun glances over his shoulder, out the window he sits beside. How had they become friends, again? How had they met, again? How long had they know each other again? Because they were teammates, right?

Baekhyun didn’t know a thing about the sport he played. Has he ever actually played? He made the team but... he can’t remember how.

“Baekhyun?” A few blinks and silence follow before Baekhyun catches up with the fact he’s being spoken too and turns to face Minseok. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I...” Baekhyun shakes his head, forces a smile. “Yeah.”

“If you say so. Come we have to get... to the team meeting.” With a motion of his head, Minseok leaves and Baekhyun takes a moment to look around the room. Had it gotten so late in the day, all the other students were gone? But the sun was still bright above them.

_We have to get out of here._

“Yeah.”

Everything was too... off.

 

“Fight! I’m sure we can win this one!” Junmyeon’s voice rang out around the group.

“Don’t get us pumped until the actual game.” Sehun laughed when Junmyeon halfheartedly glared at him.

Jongdae blocks them out for the moment, focusing on the lights reflecting off the walls in the corner of his vision. Why was the lighting in here so pink, again? Had it always been? He catches a questioning look from Baekhyun and shrugs.

“It’s so... pink.”

“Isn’t it?”

There’s something strange in Baekhyun’s tone that makes Jongdae focus on the colour again.

_Wasn’t it blue before?_

 

“It’s nothing to be upset about,” Junmyeon tries to assure them after a loss. The whole thing was a blur in Yixing’s mind. Was it over already?

“You know... I think I’m okay with it.” Kyungsoo shrugs, drops his helmet into his locker like an afterthought.

“Yeah, It’s fine.” Chanyeol and Sehun share a shrug, mocking Kyungsoo’s.

Somehow, even Yixing doesn’t really feel upset about it. Maybe so much loss made you numb to it, he figured. Then again, had he been sad when they lost before? He tried to think back, but couldn’t really recall how he’d felt about it.

_Calm down, everything’s fine. There’s nothing to be upset about anymore._

“Anymore.”

“What Yixing?”

“Ah, nothing.” He waved off the question, blinking at the empty space in front of him. What was he saying?

 

 

“Hey Minseok, how are your grades?” Baekhyun asks, idly, leaning over the others desk.

“They’re... fine?” Minseok pauses, shakes his head. “Great even.”

“Yeah, how was the last test?”

 “There was a test? Aren’t we in different classes Baekhyun?”

 “Are we?” The pause is enough to confirm to Baekhyun his own thoughts. “Doesn’t something seem... off?”

 “In what way?”

 “My memory is... smoky? Blurry?”

 “Isn’t that your own problem?” Still, Baekhyun can see the thought seeping in for Minseok. Wasn’t something not right about everything?

 

“Hey Jongdae what’s you’re favourite color?” 

“What?” Jongdae blinks at Minseok, then raises an eyebrow. “Um, I guess... Blue?”

“Is it?”

“I think.” 

“Don’t you know?” Minseok leans against the wall, and Jongdae frowns at him. “Something about blue, is sort of painful to me.”

“Painful?”

“I don’t know.”

“You said it.” Jongdae sighs, glances out to the field and notes the pink tint of the lights. “I guess you’d like how pink this place is then.”

“Maybe.” Minseok shrugs, pushes away from the wall and steps past Jongdae. “Or it’s fake.”

“Fake?”

“Never mind.”

“This conversation is giving me a headache.”

_If I have to see that colour of blue again I’m going to loose it._

“Pink instead,” Jongdae muttered to himself.

“What’s that.”

“It’s pink instead.” 

“What is?”

“I don’t know...”

 

“Hey Sehun, are the others acting weird?” Chanyeol leans back in his seat, feet on his desk. Sehun turns to face him, tilting his head.

“I don’t know, maybe? Have you tried to talking to them lately?”

 “Yeah, I just got confused. Minseok, Jongdae, Baekhyun, and even Yixing keep talking in circles.”

 “I wonder what’s up with them?”

 

“Hey, Jongin?” Yixing stops mid-step, and watches Jongin’s back as he stops before Jongin turns around.

“Something up?”

“When was the last time you felt sad?”

“Um- what?” Yixing doesn’t answer him, just waits for an answer to the first question. “I guess... I don’t know?”

“Angry?”

“Don’t know?”

“Tired?”

“Don’t know?”

“It wasn’t before you slept, or something?”

“Oh I guess...” Realization crosses Jongin’s face for just brief enough a second that Yixing notices, before confusion takes over. “I don’t know.”

The shrug Jongin gives before turning back around does nothing to hide from Yixing the fact that Jongin realized what he was saying.

 

“Sehun let’s go break something.”

“Excuse me?” Sehun opens his eyes, sits up in the seat at his desk, and looks Jongin up and down. “Break something?”

“Yeah, nothing important, but like bottles or something. Get out some pent up aggression or something.”

“Don’t have any.”

“That’s the problem.”

“What is?”

“Nothing,” Jongin smiles like he’s about to say something Sehun wont like. “It just seems like no one is feeling anything recently. Especially you.”

“I feel plenty.”

“You sure about that?”

“Pretty sure.”

“I don’t know.”

“Why do I have the distinct feeling your insulting me.”

“I am.” Jongin pauses, Sehun frowns. “Not upset about it?”

“Of course I- no. Of course I’m not.”

“Right.”

“So about breaking things?” Sehun doesn’t looks at Jongin, even as he follows him out of the school.

Weirdly, Sehun notes once their out of the school gate, he can’t really think of the last time he left the school. But he must have, he thinks. It’s not like he lives there. So why...?

 

Breaking bottles does absolutely nothing. Sehun and Jongin sit again a wall, stare out in front of them, and silently share a thought.

Something isn’t right.

“Jongin?”

“Yea- Ow!” Jongin grabs his face as Sehun pulls back his fist. “ _Why?”_

“Felt like it.”

“Sehun- what?”

“You didn’t even look angry.”

“I’m not?” There’s a pause. “I’m not.”

“Yeah. I think I see what you were saying earlier.”

“I got the idea from Yixing.”

“I wonder why.”

_If you get angry..._

“So do I.”

 

They’d won. Junmyeon watches the team shout, cheer, be happy for their apparent victory. Stands there and feels like something… isn’t right. It feels like they’re all going through the motions, like it’s not real happiness. Junmyeon doesn’t feel happy, at least.

_It’s for your own good..._

It’s not important. Even as everyone else trails out of the locker room. Even as he’s left alone. It’s not important, he tells himself. Yet, he feels upset. Yet, he throws his helmet down and presses himself against a locker. Yet, it’s not right.

Something isn’t right.

 

“You know,” Kyungsoo starts, sitting back in his seat, “I heard a rumor.”

“What’s that?” Chanyeol raises an eyebrow at him.

“That’s the forest near here was haunted. We should send someone in there.”

“I’m surprised you’re mentioning this to me. Where’d you hear it anyway?”

“You know… so am I.” Kyungsoo pauses. “I don’t know where I heard it.”

“Don’t remember?”

“No.”

 

“I heard the forest near by is haunted.” Chanyeol grins at Jongdae, who smiles in turn. “Want to help me plot something?”

“Sure.”

 

Minseok doesn’t know how he ends up involved, but there he and Jongdae are, in the forest next to their school. Everything is really… foggy. He frowns, opens his mouth to speak, and then realizes Jongdae has disappeared from his line of sight.

“Jongdae?” He frowns. “We both know I’m not easily scared, quit it.”

No response.

“Jongdae?” He calls out again.

_Fear is a…_

He’s alone. Somehow, someway, his eyelids feel heavy.

_Fear is a strong…_

Baekhyun stands in a room- his room, he thinks vaguely- papers sitting on the desk in front of him. He takes another step, somehow hesitant, and looks down at the blank pages. For some reason… its upsetting.

He grabs the papers, somehow bright despite the darkness of his room. Why hadn’t he turned the light on, again?

_He used to be scared of the dark._

Baekhyun pauses, frowns. Who was scared of the dark? Clutching the papers tighter, unable to figure out where the thought came from, he feels frustrated. Throws the papers into the air and watches them fall to the floor.

“What is going on?” Baekhyun presses his palms into his face, suddenly cold.

He doesn’t hear the papers hit the ground.

“I used to be scared of the dark.”

 

Yixing hasn’t seen Jongdae in a while, he thinks. Kyungwoo says the same about Minseok. Chanyeol says the same about Sehun. Junmyeon about Jongin. Yixing goes to ask Baekhyun, only to realize he can’t find him.

“Where’d they all go?”

 

Minseok wakes to Jongdae leaning over him, looking mildly concerned. They don’t say anything, even as Jongdae helps Minseok to his feet. He stands, forest surrounding them, fog surrounding them. Everything is too… pink.

“What were you doing on the ground?”

“What were you doing, leaving me on my own?”

“Did I?”

Minseok pauses, Jongdae stop, spinning to face him. Neither of them speak, but they share a look of confusion.

“Where are we?”

_This is only going to make it worse._

 

The light is red. Junmyeon walks through the locker room, around the field. Looks and looks but finds no signs of their missing friends. Even worse, somehow he doesn’t feel as concerned as his logical side says he should be. They could be hurt.

_He’ll realize._

Junmyeon pauses, standing on the field. Looks up to the stands, where Kyungsoo waves down to him, silently questioning if he’s found the others. Junmyeon shakes his head. Were the lights always red?

Something is wrong.

 

Sehun trails the train tracks, tossing a bottle up and down in his hand. Where had Jongin gone? Hadn’t they been together a second ago? He pauses, sighing, and drops to the ground. It’s too much work, Jongin can find him. He’ll wait here, he tells himself. Lays over the tracks. They haven’t been used in a while, anyway.

Sehun looks up at the sky, clear yet dim.

Had he ever come to the train tracks before, though? How would he know that, he hadn’t even remembered they were here. Where was he again, even?

No, this isn’t right. Sehun stands, turns around to the way he came. Where was Jongin?

Jongin swings a bat around, trailing along the buildings painted walls. Where had Sehun gone?

 

Minseok and Jongdae walk without a destination. No turns, no hesitation, just continued walking forward. They are bound to find their way out eventually, they tell themselves. They do; forest exiting to train tracks.

There’s a building- neither recognize- in the distance.

The sky is dark despite the position of the sun and lack of clouds. Jongdae breathes out, somehow not relieved.

It didn’t feel like they’d gotten out.

 

Everyone was losing their minds, Kyungsoo decides. From disappearing, to ignoring the disappearances, to questioning their reality and feelings. Everyone was out of their mind. Kyungsoo sighs, leans back in one of seats outside of their field. Junmyeon leaves his area of sight, and Kyungsoo looks up at the sky.

He, too, must be losing his mind. Something was seriously wrong. Something was going on, but he couldn’t place it.

_This isn’t working._

 

Blue, Chanyeol thinks. The lights in his room are a bright blue. He opens his closed eyes, and there they are, blue lights. Blue lights. Weren’t they purple a minute ago? Something doesn’t feel right.

Where had their friends gone? Why was he alone here, with blue lights and a broken television? Chanyeol frowns.

Nothing about this is okay.

 

Yixing and Junmyeon sit across from each other, unable to find words for there shared worries.

 

Kyungsoo steps onto the field and closes his eyes. At one point, he thinks, the feeling of dirt under him would have meant something. He knows it would have. It must have. It doesn’t.

Kyungsoo opens his eyes, stares at the ground.

“Why?”

_This is too…_

_He’s going to…_

Kyungsoo kicks the dirt, glares at the ground. Why can’t he figure it out? Why can’t he figure out what’s missing?

 

Chanyeol hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Baekhyun hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Minseok hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Jongdae hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Jongin hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Sehun hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Kyungsoo isn’t as school today.

 

Yixing buries his face in his hands. Why isn’t he upset? Why can’t he be upset when he knows he should be? Junmyeon stares at the ceiling, wordless. Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Something is so very wrong.

 

Baekhyun used to be scared of the dark. Baekhyun used to be scared of the dark. Baekhyun used to be scared of the dark.

It’s dark.

 

Chanyeol hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Minseok hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Jongdae hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Jongin hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Sehun hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Kyungsoo hasn’t been at school in a while.

 

Baekhyun is at school today.

 

“You haven’t been around in a while,” Yixing says. Baekhyun can only nod. “What happened? Do you know where the others are.”

“No.”

“Baekhyun.”

“I used to be scared of the dark.”

“Oh… okay?”

“Yixing, do you remember why you moved here?”

“I don’t…”

 

Yixing isn’t at school today.

 

Junmyeon is the only one here.

_They’re going to…_

Junmyeon is the only one here. Junmyeon is the only one.

“Where did everyone go?”

 

Baekhyun finds Minseok, Jongdae, Sehun, and Jongin all together, by a building he doesn’t recognize, on the edge of a forest he forgot existed.

 

Kyungsoo stares up at the sky above the field. Except he isn’t on the field, anymore.

 

Chanyeol wakes in his room. The lights are purple.

 

Yixing doesn’t know why, but he thinks he’s in his room. He doesn’t know why, but it’s unfamiliar. He doesn’t know why, but he doesn't remember moving here.

 

“Hey, do any of you remember anyone else?” Sehun asks.

“Anyone else?” Jongin looks confused.

“Besides us nine?”

“Nine?” Minseok frowns.

 

Junmyeon thinks he should be worried. Thinks he should be concerned. Thinks he should want to find them. Thinks the fact that he seems to be the only one in the entire school should worry him.

Junmyeon thinks something is wrong.

 

Baekhyun used to be scared of the dark. He isn’t sure why, but he feels like he still should be. Yet, he can’t feel afraid.

“I feel like we should be scared.”

But he’s not.

 

The lights are pink. The lights are pink. Chanyeol closes his eyes. The lights are blue. Chanyeol opens his eyes. The lights are blue, Junmyeon looks up, like just seeing him there for the first time.

“Hey.”

“Chanyeol?”

“We should leave.”

 

They should leave. They should leave. They have to leave.

Something is wrong.

Kyungsoo sits up, in the field. When did he get back there? Had he ever left?

Something is wrong. His memory is wrong.

What’s outside of the school?

 

It’s raining. Sehun looks up. It’s windy. Rain pours. Minseok looks up. It’s cold. Rain pours.

It’s raining.

There’s a strike of thunder. Jongdae looks up.

_We can’t let them-_

“I want to be angry.” Thunder sounds again.

It’s raining.

 

“Kyungsoo!” Kyungsoo looks up. Junmyeon is there. Chanyeol is there. Kyungsoo feels like he shouldn't be here.

They shouldn’t be here.

They aren’t here.

There isn’t a school.

Something is wrong.

 

Once, when he was younger, Jongin wanted nothing more than to run away. It was a wish that he found an answer to. But for some reason, he can’t remember how. Baekhyun used to be scared of the dark.

“Why can’t we- why don’t we- I don’t remember why I’m here.”

Jongin feels like he should be older.

 

Yixing leaves his house, but there’s so much fog the journey to the school is confusing. Yet, without thought, he’s there. Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, and Junmyeon are leaving. They’re leaving. He calls out to them.

He wants to leave, too.

 

Somehow, they’re all together, outside. It’s raining, and their greetings are lackluster. Somehow, they’re outside.

Jongdae frowns at the sky. It’s cold. It should be cold. He doesn’t feel anything.

He doesn’t feel anything.

Junmyeon falls over.

“Junmyeon?!” Yixing’s concern may be the first real emotion any of them have displayed in a while.

“It’s water.”

Junmyeon is on the ground. Something is wrong.

Jongdae understands.

 

They’re all kids when it starts, really. It happens at different times, for each of them, but that’s the same. When they realize, when they remember, when they find out. They’re human, surely, but they’re also not. They weren’t, once. In another lifetime.

There were more of them, once.

They were all kids, when it started. They didn’t know enough. They didn’t do enough. None of them were ready, and their emotions were never under enough control.

They’re all kids, when it starts. They’re adults, by the time they come together. They’re adults, by the time they’re caught. They’re adults, but they were just kids, once. They were kids, when it started.

They were kids.

So their emotions were bound to be too much.

Something is wrong, and Junmyeon knows exactly what it is.

This isn’t real. This place, the weather, their feelings aren’t real. This isn’s where they are, nor where they should be.

They were kids when it started, they couldn’t do anything. But they aren’t now.

“I want to feel something.” Junmyeon is helped back up by Yixing. “Hey, Baekhyun, you said you were scared of the dark, right?”

He hadn’t. Not to Junmyeon. “Yes.”

“That’s why it was light, wasn’t it?”

It was light. Baekhyun knows. Baekhyun remembers.

“Yeah, it was.”

Something is wrong, Baekhyun understands. The others are still confused, trapped in this, but he knows. Junmyeon grins.

“We know.”

There’s another clap of thunder.

 

It’s blue, far brighter than it should be. It’s blue, and terrifying. They’re just kids, when it starts.

Baekhyun opens his eyes. Someone stares down at him, and surprise is etched on their face. Somewhere, to his right, Junmyeon opens his eyes.

“They’re waking up!”

It’s blue. You generally shouldn’t rip IV’s out, but Baekhyun can’t bare to know that it’s there.

 

Junmyeon and Baekhyun are gone. They’re gone, in an instant. And for a moment, no one can remember if they were there in the first place.

And then they’re awake. Then they’re in a room of white, copies of the same face struggling to try and keep them asleep.

They’re awake. Something is wrong.

Something is wrong, but they’re awake this time.

And they aren’t kids, this time.

 

_Junmyeon is fairly young, when it happens. Probably the youngest of any of them, really. It happens slowly, in pieces, but isn’t surprising. He was always the most in tune with the source of their abilities. Always the one who understood the best, even when he wasn’t the most in control. He has a neighbor who believes wholeheartedly in aliens, and that they’re out to get humanity. One day he thinks they’re insane, the next he thinks they’re a fool._

_Because why would he be out to get humans, when he was one now?_

_Junmyeon is fairly young, when he remember being someone else. He knows he isn’t that person anymore; knows Suho has been dead nearly as long as Junmyeon’s parents have been alive. Knows the memories aren’t really his, in a way. Just something passed along with his powers._

_Knows that water only chose him because he’s in most in tune with the source, of all the new chosen._

_Junmyeon is fairly young when he runs away, desperate to find the others._

_It rains._

 

_Minseok probably should have realized sooner. He’s a teenager, by the time he remembers. It only happens because there’s a transfer student who he’s certain he knows. Who he’s certain, when he remember, is another. When they become friends, Minseok has regained all of his memories._

_Minseok probably should have realized sooner. The way he seeks out cold everyone else calls him crazy for. The way he feels much older than he is. The way he can’t get that name out of his mind._

_Minseok probably should have realized long before the name, “xiumin,” rings out and he’s facing someone he shouldn’t, but does, know._

_Ice chose him, when he was pretty young, the first time. When he had wanted nothing more than to be strong enough to leave. To be able to fight. Minseok doesn’t want any of that, really. Xiumin probably would be disappointed in his second self, but Minseok’s only wish is to find the others._

_When the two of them set out, Minseok believes that’s enough._

_When he was the only one to make it, Minseok thinks maybe Xiumin had the right idea._

_It’s cold._

 

_Yixing is alone when it happens. Alone, with only plants, when it happens. He’s a teenager, waiting in a flower shop while the attendant does something else, and one of the flowers is dying. Yixing is alone when it happens._

_It happens all at once. Yixing is a teenager, thinking about his future, about the job he’s trying to get, and suddenly he’s not. Suddenly he’s Lay and running from a dying planet with the only people he’s ever truly known. Suddenly he’s a healer, and a friend, and not alone._

_Yixing is alone, when it happens, and suddenly he knows exactly where he should be. Knows that where he should be, isn’t where he is. Knows that he has to leave._

_Yixing is alone when it happens. Remembers why life chose him, remembers why he needed it, remembers why he can’t be alone again. Not anymore. While other’s in their group may have had a stronger connection to the source, he has a stronger connection to himself._

_Really, he isn’t a different person, as a human._

_Yixing is alone when it happens, and seeks others out. Yixing isn’t alone, by the time he finds them, another of their group at his side. Yixing is alone, again, when the group falls into disarray._

_Yixing is alone, when they’re found._

_Yixing can’t fix anything, from where he is._

 

_Jongdae is the last to realize. Jongdae knows about his powers, knows how to use them, but the how and why aren’t there. How he got them, how he was chosen, why they’re important, why he feels like he should know more than he does._

_Jongdae is the last to realize, only knowing when the others find him and suddenly it makes sense. Suddenly he knows why electricity chose him. Jongdae is the last to realize, and somehow that’s fitting. Because Chen was the last to earn his power, the last to know he needed one. Because he had been meant for something else, something greater, before everything fell apart._

_Jongdae is the last to realize how important the others are. Because he wouldn’t be one of them, this time, if it wasn’t for them last time._

_Jongdae is the last to realize._

_There’s thunder ringing outside._

 

_Kyungsoo isn’t the first to remember, but he’s not much older than Junmyeon was. Kyungsoo is young when it happens. Walking home from school, holding his mothers hand, when suddenly he’s entirely too aware that he wasn’t human once. That he has a choice between pretending he is, and moving on._

_Kyungsoo isn’t the first, nor the last, to remember, but he takes his time. D.O. would probably be angry, to realize the pace with which Kyungsoo moves through his life. Kyungsoo doesn’t care. He’s living a human life, this time. Moving forward the proper way. He doesn’t run, but works his way into an escape._

_Earth chose him because he was patient. It was something he forgot, near the end. But this time, he wont forget._

_Kyungsoo isn’t the first to remember, which is fine. He doesn’t need to be._

_He’s the strongest, anyway._

 

_Sehun remembers when he’s in middle school. Sitting in class, gazing out of the window as wind blows on the trees, when he remember. He nearly laughs. His name is the same._

_Sehun remembers when he’s in middle school, why wind chose him. Remembers his other self, working his way up until he’s earned a power, despite being the weakest to start. Remembers being the last to run, the one who nearly didn’t escape in time._

_Sehun remembers when he’s in middle school. He’s a child, be he remembers too much to just sit still. So he leaves. Part of him feels bad, for everyone he’ll worry, but he needs to find the others. Needs to know that they still exist, somewhere. Needs to know that they’re still there._

_Sehun remembers when he’s in middle school._

_Sehun wasn’t much older the first time, either._

_Jongin already wanted to run away. Maybe that’s why, he doesn’t need to remember at first. Doesn’t need memories or understanding._

_Jongin already wanted to run away, so his power let him. Even if he didn’t remember, it was a part of him. Jongin already ran away, by the time he remembers._

_Knowing that teleportation chose him- chose Kai- for that reason, isn’t surprising. Knowing that this is the same, isn’t shocking. Jongin already wanted to run away, and remembering does nothing but aid that._

_Jongin already wanted to run away, all remembering did was give him somewhere to run to._

_And he would have run, no matter what. It was always going to happen. Running was all he did. All they ever did._

_So he runs to them._

 

_Chanyeol remembers in pieces. First, he remembers his name. He shouldn’t need to, since it’s the same. So nothing clicks. Then the others. Then he remembers warmth, and cold, and the struggle to keep the former. Then he remembers fire. Then he remembers escaping._

_Chanyeol remembers in pieces._

_Last is the why. The last piece, he thinks, is the reason fire chose him. The want to save himself from the cold consuming the planet. The want to save others from it._

_Chanyeol remembers in pieces. By the time they’re all there, Chanyeol knows what he has to do. Knows he has to find the others._

_Chanyeol remembers in pieces. A puzzle that when put together creates a spark._

_It’s warmer somewhere else._

_Baekhyun was scared of the dark, before he remembered. Nothing- no logic or words- could explain it. Even when there was no reason, he was afraid._

_Remembering eased that fear. Remembering gave him something else, anyway. Remembering gave him a way to rid himself of the very thing he was afraid of. The same thing that lead him- the first time, back on that other planet- to seek power in the first place. He didn’t want to be afraid, anymore._

_Baekhyun was scared of the dark. Baekhyun, is scared of the dark. Baekhyun was chosen by light just as much as he chose it._

_Baekhyun was scared of the dark._

_Being alone is an inescapable darkness._

_When they’d come together, none of them had expected anything bad. They were just kids, the twelve of them._

_When they were broken apart, none of them expected it. They were just kids, desperate to put back together what should have stayed apart._

_When they came back together, it was to leave. Just like they left before, to become human, they wanted to leave again. Somewhere else, where maybe they could live, this time._

_When they came back together, they never could have known anything else was there. They never could have known they’d be caught, hidden because they were too powerful. Hidden because they remembered._

_When they fell asleep, the nine of them, they were just kids._

They wake up, as adults, and they remember.

They used to be so much more powerful, before they were kids. When they wake up, they're powerful again.

 

They- the people keeping them there, feeding them a false reality and false memories- aren’t even people. Just copies of the same face, same body, same reality, meant to keep them in place. Meant to keep them asleep and unfeeling.

So it isn’t much of a struggle, when they break free. So it isn’t much of a challenge, to show those things- and whoever may be watching that created them- just why they were so much of a threat.

They- those things- explode and are tossed aside, and break, and they- the nine of them, free now- run. Run, and fight, and remember again.

They’ve done it already, before, and it’s less of a struggle now. Less of a fight against themselves, now that they’re awake.

They remember.

Something went wrong, but they aren’t done yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter will have some more back-story!  
> Comments are always appreciated but if you read this at all I appreciate it!


End file.
